Determination of Pin-

Pin-bearing Strength for the

Design of Bolted Connections with Standard
Pultruded Profiles

J. Toby Mottram
School of Engineering

Advanced Composites In Construction

Conference (ACIC 09)
09), Edinburgh
Edinburgh, 1-3 Sept
Sept. 2009

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Bearing strength and bolted connections

Study:
To review standard test
methods.

To compare two test

methods for pin-bearing
strength.

PP slide show is available from Personal Web-page.

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Why study?

Standard for Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) of Pultruded

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Structures (ASCE and ACMA).
Eight chapters, we contribute for the glory of it.
1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
2. DESIGN RESISTANCE
3. TENSION MEMBERS
4. DESIGN OF COMPRESSION MEMBERS
5. DESIGN FOR MEMBERS IN BENDING AND SHEAR
6. MEMBERS UNDER COMBINED FORCES AND TENSION
7. PLATES AND BUILT-UP MEMBERS
8. BOLTED CONNECTIONS.

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Connections and joints permitted

LRFD chapter for bolted connections

combines design for frame joints,
such as the web-cleated
web cleated type shown
on top-right (classify as simple using
the principles in BS EN 1993-1-
8:2006), with the design of plate-to-
plate connections, such as there is in
each of the cleat legs and bracing
members (bottom-right).

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Plate--to
Plate to--plate resistances
Distinct modes of failure (single-bolted connections)

or

e1 dn

2e2

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Damage Failure
Load
Ultimate
Load (a) bearing, (b) net-tension, (c) shear-out, (d) cleavage
Tensile load

Failure mode can be made to change by varying the

geometric ratios e1/d (or e1/dn) and w/d (or w/dn), with
w = 2e2. d is bolt diameter, < dn.
Stroke

Mix modes for off-axis and block shear with multi-rows.

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Strength formula - Bearing
Rbr t d Fbr
t is thickness of FRP.
d is diameter of bolt.
Fbr
b
is specified pin-bearing strength for the orientation of the resultant
force at the bolt/FRP contact with respect to the direction of pultrusion.

Bearing failure (e1/d = 5; w/d = 7 (w = 2e2)), = 0 for

Longitudinal material.
From Pu Wang, PhD thesis, Univ. of Lancaster, 2004.
For 6.4
6 4 mm EXTREN 525 flat sheet material,
material 9.8
9 8 mm
diameter bolt, 10 mm hole, and finger-tightened
bolting a batch of three specimens gave a mean
Fbr = 280 N/mm2. No clearance hole and bolt tension

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Permitted by LRFD standard
Flat sheets or structural profiles (I, H, etc.).

Thicknesses from 6.35 mm up to, and including to 25.4 mm.

Bolts and nuts (ASTM standards A304, A307 and A316).

d from 9.53 mm up to, and including, 25.4 mm.

Hardened flat circular washers - outer diameter at least 2d, and at least one
washer is to be used at the head of the bolt and at the nut.

Bolts are to be torqued to the snug-tightened1 condition (guidance for setting

this relatively low level of bolt tensioning still to be identified).

Nominal hole diameter, dn, is to be 1.6 mm larger than d. (Hole clearance is

therefore in the range 0.14dn to 0.06dn).

Holes are to be drilled or reamed.

1. Now finger-tightened changed after paper written

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Standards for bearing strength
ASTM D 953-02 - scope is actually for rigid plastics, in either sheet or
moulded form. Hardened steel pin (no lateral constraint) of d = 6.325 mm
and a maximum hole dn = 1.012d (maximum clearance of only 0.012dn).
t = 6.4 mm,, e1/d = 3 and w/d = 3.7.
Pin-bearing strength is determined from load when the hole is deformed by
4% of its diameter. there is evidence for its unreliability

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Standards for bearing strength
ASTM D 5961-05 - scope is for with laminated composites (aerospace).
t = 3 to 5 mm, e1/d = 3 and w/d = 6. wider
Metallic fastener (lightly torqued (2.2-3.4 Nm )) of d = 6 mm and a close-
tolerance hole.
Bearing strength is determined from maximum load.
this is desirable

Because laminates are to be balanced and symmetric with respect to the

load direction the bearing mode is most likely to occur with e1 = 3d.

with pultrusion this end distance ratio needs to be larger

As recommended in MIL-HDBK-17

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Standards for bearing strength
EN 13706-2:2002 - for pultruded materials.
e1/dn = 6 and w/dn is 6 (with dn = 6.00.2 mm). bigger end distance
Diameter of pin (bolt without any lateral constraint) is actually not specified,
d is to be 6 mm (for a close fitting bolt).
Pin-bearing strength is determined from maximum load.
Part 3 reports minimum properties that are required for each grade.
br
Minimum pin-bearing strengths Fbr ( F ) (in N/mm2) are 150 (90) for Grade
23 and 90 (50) for Grade 17 (the grade number is the minimum longitudinal
tensile modulus).

6.35 mm EXTREN 525 flat sheet material in RT tests

is Grade 17; minimum Fbr is 90 N/mm2

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Comparison of test methods

6d = 96 mm

WU EN

Similar to ASTM D 5764-07 timber

timber & In spirit of BS EN 13706-2
Compression loading Tensile loading
Maximum specimen 120x73 mm (d = 20 mm) 220x120 mm

With and without 1 mm clearance, with bolt diameters of 8, 12 and 16 mm.

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Comparison of test methods
Bearing failure for = 0 (6.35 mm EXTREN 525 flat sheet)
Close fitting pin 1 mm clearance hole

16 mm

17 mm

WU16 EN17

ASTM D 5764-07 (timber) & EN 13706-2

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Comparison of test methods
35

30 WU test method
25
ad (kN)

WU08-04
20
Compressive loa

WU09-03
WU12-02
15
WU13-06
WU16-02
10
WU17-05

0
0 0 25
0.25 05
0.5 0 75
0.75 1 1 25
1.25
Stroke displacement (mm)

Linear elastic response to pin-bearing failure; same when test is to EN 13706

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Comparison of test methods
Batches of six specimens
F0br WU08 WU09 WU12 WU13 WU16 WU17
Mean (N/mm2) 362 241 315 227 314 239

SD (N/mm2) 21.6 25.2 10.0 24.5 31.0 17.0

WU CoV (%) 6.0 10.5 3.2 10.8 9.9 7.1
Characteristic1 314 186 293 174 246 202
(N/
(N/mm 2)

Mean d/t ratio 1.25 1.27 1.92 1.91 2.55 2.54

Blue font Max. clearance 0.2 1.2 0.2 1.2 0.2 1.2
for 1+ mm (mm)
clearance
F0br Batches of six specimens - EN09 with five
EN08 EN09 EN12 EN13 EN16 EN17

Mean (N/mm2) 324 232 298 201 297 235

EN
SD (N/mm2) 10.4 17.6 19.5 7.6 22.2 19.6

CoV (%) 3.2 7.6 6.6 3.8 7.5 8.4

Characteristic1
(N/mm2) 301 191 255 185 245 192

Mean d/t ratio 1.23 1.25 1.92 1.88 2.51 2.49

Note: 1. Mean 2.18SD (batches of 6)

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Comparison of test methods
350
close-clearance and WU test close-hole clearance and EN test

strength (N/mm2)
1 mm hole clearance and WU test 1 mm hole clearance and EN test

300
Characteristic pin bearing s

250 F0br

200

150
1 1 25
1.25 15
1.5 1 75
1.75 2 2 25
2.25 25
2.5 2 75
2.75
d/t ratio

Linear decrease in longitudinal strength with increase of d/t.

1 mm clearance can reduce the longitudinal strength by 50%.

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Concluding Remarks
Because of creep relaxation the pin-bearing strength is to be used in
structural calculations.

Current test standards require a tensile specimen that is too big.

Current test standards do not allow for bolt diameters, clearance holes, and
material thicknesses found in practice (and for the LRFD design standard).

Comparison of test results (batch size of six) from two methods show
similarities; presence of shaft flexure lowers the strength in the EN tests.

With a close-fit bolt the mean longitudinal pin-bearing strength of 6.35 mm

flat sheet is > 300 N/mm2 and decreases linearly with increase of d/t ratio.

With a 1 mm clearance the mean strength reduces by 20,

20 up to 50%.
50%

Minimum characteristic pin-bearing strength (at RT) is found to be 180

N/mm2; higher than 90 N/mm2 (from Part 3 of EN 13706) and lower than 220
N/mm2 (from pultruders Design Manual). Reasons for this are obvious!

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Thank you for your attention.

Any questions?

Email: Toby.Mottram@warwick.ac.uk 2009